Bangkok venue to host Thailand Open Chess Championship

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 03, 2010 -
Chess fans using Bangkok hotels (http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/bangkok.html) next month may like to test their skills in a special tournament.

Coinciding with the city's Songkran festivities, the tenth Thailand Open Chess Championship will take place at the Century Park Hotel from April 14th to 20th.

The tournament is organised by the Bangkok Chess Club, which has promised a particularly memorable event to mark its tenth anniversary.

With sponsorship from the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Thailand Chess Association, the championship is expected to feature some of the very best chess masters in the city, as well as players from further afield.

Previous Thailand Open tournaments have included grandmasters such as England's Nigel Short and Ian Rogers of Australia.

Registration for the championship is priced at 2,500 baht (£51), with a first prize of 100,000 baht up for grabs.

People who have used Sukhumvit hotels (http://www.asiarooms.com/thailand/sukhumvit.html) may already be familiar with the Bangkok Chess Club, which meets every Tuesday at the Bull's Head pub near the Phrom Phong skytrain station.

Tournaments usually get underway at 20:00 local time and over 200 players are now registered with the club.

Short, who became a grandmaster at age 19 and challenged Garry Kasparov for the world championship in 1993, is a regular participant in club events.